Scania will provide 151 new four-axle trucks and 21 three-axle trucks for the Finnish military at a cost of 66.2 million euros. The firm will also provide maintenance services.
Scania, which is majority-owned by Volkswagen, is set to build the chassis for the heavy military vehicles, before shipping them to Cargotec in Jyväskylä. The Finnish firm will then complete the assembly during the production, which is set to last from 2014-2017.
The Defence Forces are also pondering procurement of twelve vehicles suitable for crisis management operations, with Sisu the main contender for that contract. Parliament’s budgetary oversight committee still has to approve both deals.
The original plan was to source the trucks from Sisu, but European Union rules on competitive tendering ensured that the government had to ask for bids. Originally the government had planned to award the contract to a domestic supplier, with Sisu the strongest candidate. Sisu did not tender for the contract under the new, competitive process.